the registry-registrar-registrant relationships in the cctlds giovanni seppia centr general manager...

The registry-registrar-registrantrelationships in the ccTLDs

Giovanni Seppia

CENTR General Manager

[email protected]

ccTLD workshop

Nairobi, 14 September 2005

mailto:[email protected]

Introducing CENTR

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What is CENTR?

Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries

Forum for TLD managers– Primarily ccTLDs

Also includes gTLDs

– Mainly European Membership from 5 continents Developed and emerging TLD markets, like .AF, .IR

Open to all Top Level Domain Registries in the world

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CENTR’s Membership

3 Members categories– Full Members– Associate Members– Observers

Members vote on admission of new members

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CENTR’s Membership AFGNIC Afghanistan (.af) STA Andorra (.ad) ISOC.AM Armenia (.am) NIC.AC Ascension Is. (.ac), Diego Garcia (.io), St

Helena (.sh) NIC.AT Austria (.at) DNS Belgium Belgium (.be) Digital Systems Bulgaria (.bg) CIRA Canada (.ca) CARNet Croatia (.hr) UCY-DNS Cyprus (.cy) CZ.NIC Czech Republic (.cz) DENIC Germany (.de) Dansk Internet Forum (.dk) FICORA Finland (.fi) AFNIC France (.fr), Mayotte (.yt), Reunion (.re), St.

Pierre & Miquelon (.pm), Wallis & Futuna Is. (.wf ) GibNet Gibraltar (.gi) GR-Hostmaster Greece (.gr) Island Networks Guernsey (.gg), Jersey (.je) CHIP Hungary (.hu) IEDR Ireland (.ie) IPM Iran (.ir) ISNIC Iceland (.is) ISOC-IL Israel (.il) IT-NIC Italy (.it) JPRS Japan (.jp)

•LITNET NOC Lithuania (.lt)•RESTENA DNS-LU Luxembourg (.lu)•NIC Malta Malta (.mt)•NIC-Mexico Mexico (.mx)•MoldData Moldova (.md)•SIDN Netherlands (.nl)•ISOCNZ New Zealand (.nz)•NORID Norway (.no), Bouvet Is. (.bv), Svalbard & Jan Mayen Is. (.sj)•Palestinian Registry Palestine (.ps)•NASK Poland (.pl)•FCCN Portugal (.pt)•RNC Romania (.ro)•Ros-NIIROS Russia (.ru)•RED.ES Spain (.es)•ARNES Slovenia (.si)•IIS Sweden (.se)•SWITCH Switzerland (.ch), Lichtenstein (.li)•SITA (.aero)•Vatican – Holy See (.va)•Nominet UK United Kingdom (.uk)•NeuStar United States of America (.us)•VeriSign (.com, .net)•Afilias (.info)•Public Interest Registry (.org)

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CENTR’s structure

Executive Committee– 5 members, inclusive of Chairman and Treasurer – 2 year appointments – It steers the organisation in accordance with CENTR

members’ wishes

Secretariat– General Manager– Communication Officer– Technical Officer– Administrative Officer

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CENTR’s output Newsletter, “Domain Wire”, 2 issues a year

Surveys– A-level survey, covering the registries management main aspects– B-survey, covering legal issues related to registries– Other surveys upon request of our members

Comments and positions on several topics that may have an impact on our members

Outreach programme, providing registries of developing countries with financial and technical support

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CENTR’s in the international arena

The European Commission participates in CENTR as an observer

Regular contacts with ICANN-IANA staff Associate member of the European Internet

Foundation Participation within the WGIG-WSIS process Regular attendance of all the international

Internet fora and meetings

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Benefits of diverse participation

CENTR values participation from many different registries– Western and Eastern Europe, Americas, Asia, Oceania – Different regulatory regimes, Internet community expectations,

use of domain names etc.– Different challenges in ensuring stable DNS/Internet

Provides added value– Brings different perspectives to discussion– Helps to define guidelines and best practices that benefit

everyone– Comes to agreed opinions on certain aspects of the international

arena

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CENTR’s long term vision Expanding the dialogue among registries,

governments and international bodies

Developing best practice by encouraging exchange amongst registries

Improving the reliability and stability of Internet through improved DNS practices

Working closely with other Internet organisations

Some basic concepts

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Registry“The wholesaler”

Database of– who owns what name– pointing names to the

servers responsible for them

Responsible for policy and procedures

– who is entitled to names, etc.

A registry is like the “bank vault” of the domain names registered under that top level domain

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Registrar and registrant

Registrar (the retailer)– Agent of customers in dealing

with registry Like a retailer which then

contacts a wholesale supplier– Usually an ISP that is providing

others services to customer

Registrant (the customer)– The entity, organisation or

individual that uses the domain name

Registries: policies and figures

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Registry status* Registry set up depends on various reasons, even though

almost every registry was historically part of an academic network – today TLDs are highly competitive and there is a very dynamic market.

The legal status can be classified as:– Private company– Part of academic network– Foundation– Association– Government agency– Telecom operator– Miscellaneous

*CENTR surveys data

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Categorising the policies of the ccTLDs*

*courtesy of UNINETT Norid

Two central aspects shapes the domain name policy:

– Requirements for the applicant

Provide documentation that he has a right to the name

Have a local presence in the area of the ccTLD

Be an organization– Number of domain names

allowed per applicant Limited/Unlimited

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A mapping of the policies of some ccTLDs*


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A summary of the mapping*• Few of the respondents are currently in the strictly regulated

category. This reflects the general move towards more liberalized domain name policies that has taken place

• Most respondents prefer a domain name policy with no limits on the number of names an applicant may hold

• While the majority of the respondents allows an unlimited number of domains per applicant, the degree of requirements for the applicant varies.

• Some requires the applicant to document rights to the domain name (bureaucracy category)

• Majority in the unregulated category – does not require any documentation of rights. Some require either a local presence, or that the applicant is an organization (or both), hence the spreading within the category.


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Number of employees within the registries*

*CENTR surveys data

Up to 10

11 to 50

Over 50

Essential to adjust to a dynamic market quickly and to satisfy customer needs efficiently.

Most Registries have just technical staff as a Registry is a technical function/service.

Registry-registrar relationship

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Registry-registrar relationship: the accreditation

Usually, the relationship between a registry and a registrar is based on a contract.

Some registries require those company that like to become a registrar to follow an accreditation procedure.

Criteria to be accredited:– Technical stability– Corporate status– Financial stability– Organisational stability– Other

Less than 25% of registries reviews these criteria regularly

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Number of registrars*

*CENTR surveys data

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Under 300 301-1000 Over 1000

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Registry-registrar relationship: some contractual aspects

When the relationship between the registry and the registrars is based on a contract, the registry should take into account some aspects:– Contract transfer and related domain names transfer– Rescue procedures for those registrants (and domain

names) whose registrars “disappeared” or went bankrupted

– Penalties in case the registrar is not up-to-date with the payments to the registry

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Registry-registrar relationship:the code of conduct

Code of conduct: In order to ensure that the domain name holder can

count on reliable information and a quality service, some registries have proposed a code of conduct to registrars

Eg. DNS.BE

Most code of conducts are based on voluntary principles, but help the users to trust the all process

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Registry-registrar relationship:the code of conduct

The new “eu” domain registrar are invited to participate in building a code of practice.

Those registrars who sign up to the code will be able to display the code of conduct logo and the list of accredited registrars published on EURid's web site will indicate which registrars have the code of conduct label.

EURid will facilitate elections from amongst the participating registrars to select a panel to assess complaints against participating registrars for alleged breaches in the code of conduct.

The panel will be empowered to remove the code of conduct label from a registrar for a fixed period or a permanent basis if they are found to be operating in contradiction with the code.

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Registry-registrar relationship:training activities

Training activities:

Most of the registries offer their registrars training activities on:– Technical aspects– Administrative issues– Legal matters

Usually these activities are free of charges

Moreover, certain regional organisations, like CENTR, provide training activities and workshops for registries on many topics such as IDNs, registry-registrars relationship,…

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Registry-registrar relationship:communication methods

Communication tools:

E-mail lists Regular meetings Help-desks Newsletter Dedicated web interfaces

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Registry-registrar relationship:the help-desk

Help-desk significant aspects:

Working hours Languages Time for processing requests Appropriate archiving procedures Customer satisfaction follow-up Different expertise of the operators

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Registry-registrar relationship:the web interfaces

Web interfaces:

Wide accessibility highly desirable– EU communication on web accessibility standards

Usually, divided in two sections:– Public information– Restricted information for registrars or ISP

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Registry-registrar relationship:shared secondary servers

Most large registries informally offer free secondarying services for smaller registries

Similar, some "well known hosts", RIPE etc, offer free secondaries also

Some - usually equally sized registries - do secondary swapping arrangements, where each will host each others servers. This principle relies on registries having similar requirements and having similar facilities to share

CENTR examines opportunities to locate secondaries via different agreements (at IXs, via Anycast networks) and presents these opportunities to its members

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Registry-registrar relationship:information sharing

Taking advantage of other registries experiences (the grass is greener…) via:– Discussion lists– Regional organisations– International meetings– Best practices doc

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Registry-registrar relationship:key complaints*

Price

Would like to have more influence on policy/contractual terms

Bureaucracy (in case of paper based models)

Liberalisation of policies

*CENTR surveys data

Registry-registrar-registrant relationship

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Registry-registrar-registrant relationship: some aspects

Some issues in this relationship should be considered from the beginning and carefully planned:– Privacy aspects (WHOIS)– Services among parties– Interaction with the Local Internet Community – Prices of domain names and of the operations on

them– Level of bureaucracy

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Registry-registrar-registrant relationship: the main problems in dealing directly with customers*

Lack of knowledge (more support needed)

Make mistakes, then blame the registry

Inaccurate information in the application forms

Delayed payments

Web browsers not compatible with registry system

*CENTR surveys data

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Questions?

Thanks for your attention

Giovanni [email protected]

www.centr.org

the registry-registrar-registrant relationships in the cctlds giovanni seppia centr general manager...

Documents

international internet

level domain registriesforum

domain wire

different registrieswestern

different challenges

domain names

dedansk internet forum

members outreach programme